The Monk and the Riddle: The Education of a Silicon Valley Entrepreneur

Not your typical how-I-made-my-Internet-millions screed, Komisar's look at the ""riddle"" of making work meaningful offers a healthful but not always compelling dose of wisdom for Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. You might call it Zen and the art of venture capitalism, a blend of off-the-shelf business nostrums with a more searching inquiry into the meaning of success in today's supercharged New Economy. The action opens at a Valley coffee shop where Komisar greets his first pitch of the day--from Funerals.com, an online purveyor of funeral goods--with due skepticism. But he soon comes to feel that the Funerals.com pitchman might have hit upon a brilliant idea, if he would only surrender his bottom-line attitude for a more personally fulfilling vision of what his company could become. Komisar, one-time chief of LucasArts Entertainment and currently a ""Virtual CEO"" for a variety of Silicon Valley firms, uses the Funerals.com pitch as the occasion for a journey through the mechanics of successful Internet ventures. Along the way, he examines pairs of opposing business paradigms--passion and drive, romance and finance, leadership and management, even inspiration and perspiration--and argues that the ""big idea"" will win out over the ""business model"" in Silicon Valley, because passion ultimately matters more than price cutting or market valuations. While well-meaning, Komisar's insistence that entrepreneurs ""strive for excellence"" can seem trite. On the other hand, his advice for people in any business to junk the ""Deferred Life Plan"" and live for the moment is a message everyone can appreciate. $50,000 ad/promo; 35,000 first printing. (May)